BRUSSELS, Belgium - Western powers are greeting with doubt new Bosnian Serb offers to end hostilities and make former president Jimmy Carter a peace mediator.
"I do not see where it is necessary to ask a former president of the United States to come in to obtain a cease-fire," said NATO Secretary-General Willy Claes.
"There is some need for skepticism," said Defense Secretary William Perry, who discussed Bosnia-Herzegovina with NATO defense ministers.
Many are doubtful that Serbs will abide by the plan Serb leader Radovan Karadzic offered as a precondition for Carter's visit. He said Serbs will stop harassing U.N. convoys, allow the Sarajevo airport to reopen, and release Muslim prisoners.
"There is a provocative aspect to the plan which is unacceptable," said French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe.
Bosnian Vice President Ejup Ganic called Karadzic's proposal an attempt to sow confusion, grab publicity and sabotage the existing peace plan.
"He has a peace plan and a map on the table and he's trying everything now to find another route around it," he said.
Serbs have rejected an international peace plan to end the 32-month war - a plan that would give them 49% of Bosnia; they now hold 72%.
The mainly Muslim government is reluctant to endorse any cease-fire agreement that might freeze Serb gains.
Carter is scheduled to leave for Bosnia-Herzegovina Saturday - flying on a commercial airline to Europe, then on a U.S. military jet to Bosnia.
He likely would land at Sarajevo airport, then be driven to the Bosnian Serb headquarters in Pale, 45 minutes northeast in the mountains.
"We expect President Carter to be totally impartial and to listen to both sides and to find out what is acceptable and what is unacceptable for both sides," Karadzic said in an interview with CNN.
Carter has conditioned his role on Serbs keeping new promises to release U.N. peacekeepers now held hostage, allowing relief groups through roadblocks, and ceasing harassment of peacekeepers.
But Pentagon spokesman Dennis Boxx said Serb compliance with those promises has so far been limited.
And State Department spokesman Mike McCurry said Serb vows "must be followed by a determined effort to reach a cease-fire, a countrywide cessation of hostilities and a renewed effort to negotiate a settlement."
Alexander Vershbow of the National Security Council and Robert Frasure of the State Department are to brief Carter today in Plains, Ga.
U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali Thursday welcomed Carter's efforts but noted the former president must be "conscious of the need . . . to avoid unnecessary duplication and possible contradictions."
U.N. officials, meanwhile, have told their special envoy in former Yugoslavia that some of his peace proposals are ill-timed and appear to favor the Serbs.
Kofi Annan, U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations, criticized new cease-fire proposals as giving the perception of "a complete endorsement of the Serb position on this issue," according to a U.N. memo.
The plan suggested by U.N. special envoy Yasushi Akashi calls for a Bosnia-wide cease-fire enforced by peacekeeping troops.
Annan told Akashi that it was "somewhat unpropitious to embark on such an initiative at a time when 356 (U.N. personnel) are still in detention and our freedom of movement is restricted."
